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 What is Subnautica? It's really loving good, that's what it is. No, really. What is it? Fine. Subnautica is a first person survival sim. The starship you're traveling on crashes on an alien world for unknown reasons, and you need to survive long enough to escape the planet. Unfortunately, the world you crash landed on was an ocean planet. So it's a first person underwater survival sim. So let me make this statement now: If you suffer from Thalassophobia, this is not the LP for you to watch. What is Thalassophobia? Per Wikipedia: quote:Thalassophobia is an intense and persistent fear of the sea or of sea travel. This game is atmospheric, it's moody, it's you, alone, on a hostile alien world full of wildlife that either doesn't care about you, or is hungry for you. 99% of the game is spent submerged underwater, and there are places where it is extremely dark, where the light of day has almost certainly never touched the seabed. Consider this OP your only warning: this game (and LP) is full of that sort of thing. What kind of LP is this? I mentioned above that it's dark and moody and ambient and all that jazz. This will be a subtitled LP for those reasons. I'm also installing a few quality of life mods to make the game a little less tedious. Autosort Lockers - Drop loot in a storage hopper, and this system automatically distributes it to the proper receptacle. Blueprint Tracker - This lets me pin blueprints to the screen so I can see at a glance what I need in order to build something. Map - Because the base game doesn't have one, and it makes no sense that a spacefaring civilization doesn't have mapping software installed on their survival PDAs. EasyCraft - If I have all the base materials needed to build, say, a battery, then this lets me build it without having to build the intermediate steps first. As you can see, none of these mods are cheaty or game breaking. They just smooth over some of the rough edges. Spoilers!? This game has a pretty decent story, and there are some really cool things to find and see out there. No unmarked spoilers, y'all! If you absolutely have to talk about something spoilery, please use spoiler tags. What about Below Zero? I don't own Below Zero yet. It's still in early access as of the time of writing. Subnautica changed quite a bit over the course of its early access life, to the point where the game that finally launched in early 2018 bore scant resemblance to the pre-release version. So I very sincerely doubt that I will be covering it in this LP. Videos Youtube Playlist! #01 - Crash Landing #02 - Lifepod 3 #03 - Time Capsule #04 - Home Sweet Tube #05 - Crash Site #06 - Seamoth #07 - The Aurora #08 - The Sunbeam #09 - Gun Island #10 - Floating Island #11 - The Growing Base #12 - Jellyshroom Cave #13 - Deep Exploration #14 - Sea Treaders #15 - Return to the Aurora #16 - Big Boy Toys #17 - The Cyclops #18 - Alien Containment #19 - Grand Reef #20 - Lost River #21 - Sanctuary Caches #22 - Disease Research #23 - Thermal Plant #24 - Primary Containment #25 - Sea Emperor #26 - Neptune Rocket DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 10:53 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 11:12
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I am here for this. I can't play this game beyond the first couple of story beats before I get distracted and spend all my time paddling around the safer areas building a pretty base and lose all incentive to actually progress because it's such a lovely looking game.
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Mar 25, 2020 12:06
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The developers REALLY missed out on having a Jaws-esque theme tune for some of the bigger meanies.
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Mar 25, 2020 12:17
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Subnautica ownsDoubleNegative posted:Map - Because the base game doesn't have one, and it makes no sense that a spacefaring civilization doesn't have mapping software installed on their survival PDAs. I'd definitely use a map mod if I ever got the urge to play this game again, but I really do think not having a map is a great thing on your first run. It's a major factor in the feeling that you're slowly mastering and conquering an unexplored world; I'm not sure I could say that for any other game. If anyone absolutely needs some concrete in-universe reason, for the sake of THEIR IMMERSION: a map would require surveying data from prior human expeditions, and positioning satellites in orbit. Neither is available here. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Mar 25, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 12:49
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Hwurmp posted:Subnautica owns Oh yeah, definitely. My first several runs were done without a map, so I learned to generally navigate by landmarks and so on. Now that I know where most everything is, having maps really helps with finding specific terrain features that I know are in the general area and so on. Beacons help so much as well, and I'll be showing those off in a couple videos. To be honest, in my last game I mostly used the map to show me where biome borders were, which was helpful when I wanted to set up scouting expeditions into some of the more desolate and terrifying areas of the game.
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Mar 25, 2020 15:36
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I've tried several hardcore runs of subnautica, and for a game I remember as "tense but easy" I sure haven't succeeded yet.
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Mar 25, 2020 16:02
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I absolutely adore this game. It's beautiful as well as tense and atmospheric. It also showcases one of the oddest dichotomies I've seen in research and exploration: marveling at the infinite wonder around you while also checking to make sure you have enough supplies to continue with your project and that you have food and water to not die.
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Mar 25, 2020 17:18
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Subnautica is awesome. It's the only survival game I found engaging just because it is so much fun to explore this strange world and its mysteries; makes me wish more games took this approach.
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Mar 25, 2020 18:56
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Subnautica absolutely scares the poo poo out of me and I hate the ocean, but I played it anyway because it's a wonderful experience once you're done weeping and crying in the corner because you poked your head into the wrong underwater cave and things showed up and were horrifying and reminded you of all the nightmares you've ever had. Great game, though, absolutely great. I'd also argue that playing with a map does somewhat spoil the feel of the game since part of what's so horrifying about it is how easy it is to get lost underwater, both in caves and closer to the surface. That feeling of "whuh-oh, I'm way out of my depth and suddenly it's much farther to the ocean floor and oh jeez who knows what scary spooky badthings live down there." is slightly muted by having a map, in my opinion.
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Mar 26, 2020 02:18
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I love Subnautica but I am also a person who has recurring nightmares about giant things in the depths just out of sight so I was never able to finish it myself. It's much easier for me to watch than to play past a certain point, so I'll be excited to see this LP.
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Mar 26, 2020 02:38
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I've always been interested in this game but not enough to get over my intense dislike of survival and crafting mechanics so I'm really looking forward to this LP
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Mar 26, 2020 05:16
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I like and have beat this game. It's a neat game. I also agree that there being no in-game map helps sell the exploration and survival aspect. The game world is pretty darn tiny considering other open world games focused on exploration.
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Mar 26, 2020 08:58
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I can see how a map might be handy. But I also complted the game without it. There was one bit I had to look up after spending several hours sad and confused. Losing your bearings is half the fun! (beacons. Know them. Love them. Put them everywhere.)
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Mar 26, 2020 09:18
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Map aside, though, I'd say all those QoL mods are stuff the base game could really have used.
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Mar 26, 2020 12:11
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For anyone worried about it, this is what the map looks like from the first video. It fills in as we explore the game world, so it only shows stuff we've seen with our own eyes.
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Mar 26, 2020 13:24
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It is a fine map.
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Mar 26, 2020 13:26
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While I understand going with Freedom mode for the sake of the LP so as to not have to manage food/water every video, I do think turning off the one of the core mechanics of the survival genre does somewhat miss the point of the survival genre. It's not a big deal in this case since this LP is clearly more about exploration than actual survival and Freedom mode is good for just screwing around. I've actually been following this game off and on for a few years and am interested in its development as a game.
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Mar 27, 2020 11:25
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Chimera-gui posted:While I understand going with Freedom mode for the sake of the LP so as to not have to manage food/water every video, I do think turning off the one of the core mechanics of the survival genre does somewhat miss the point of the survival genre. It's not a big deal in this case since this LP is clearly more about exploration than actual survival and Freedom mode is good for just screwing around. Food and water does eventually stop being a hassle in Subnautica, but you're pretty far in by that point, and actually getting the items and the setup that allows you to no longer worry about them is kind of a big deal, at least to my mind. Plus limited food and water supplies also limit how far you can go exploring, and serve as another push to set up a proper camp and expand your selection of exploration tools. So for actual play, I'd say Freedom mode loses you something, but for an LP I'd say it allows the LP'er to focus on actually showing off the game unless they want to do a bunch of "housekeeping" in between videos, which might honestly not be a bad idea in any case since the actual basebuilding stuff probably wouldn't be too gripping to watch.
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Mar 27, 2020 11:43
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I honestly prefer the Freedom mode - while having enough food and water is a massive factor early, it stops being an issue fairly quickly and from there transitions to being just a nuisance.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Mar 27, 2020 |
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Mar 27, 2020 12:15
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I didn't know it was possible to play this game wrong, but you somehow managed to. you didn't touch a single fish.
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Mar 27, 2020 14:22
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#2 - Lifepod 3 A distress signal comes over the radio!
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Mar 28, 2020 13:12
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That's a hell of a lucky start. Can't wait for you to forget where the geyser is and have to take an hour to find it again 
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Mar 28, 2020 14:29
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Well, you can get some idea of what happened to the two from Lifepod 3. The engineer there worried that his rigged seaglide could overload three metres from the pod. And... you found a broken seaglide three metres from the pod. And they were worried they'd need to run from something. Yeah, we're not seeing them again.
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Mar 28, 2020 15:47
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SniHjen posted:I didn't know it was possible to play this game wrong, but you somehow managed to. Not an emptyquote.
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Mar 30, 2020 02:05
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all self-confessed fish touchers will be reported to the FBI* *Fish Bureau of Investigation
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Mar 30, 2020 02:16
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Hwurmp posted:That's a hell of a lucky start. Can't wait for you to forget where the geyser is and have to take an hour to find it again Fortunately there's two of them in the shallows and both are pretty good for building bases in. I prefer the other one to the one shown in the video though.
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Mar 30, 2020 04:07
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Food and water are basically a non issue as soon as you find the one plant anyway, but the easy crafting thing seems a bit much. Eh whatever, play it however.
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Mar 30, 2020 04:52
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Hwurmp posted:all self-confessed fish touchers will be reported to the FBI* look have you ever pet a moray eel before because they are so soft
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Mar 30, 2020 06:02
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Fish Noise posted:look
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Mar 30, 2020 06:21
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Dreadwroth2 posted:Food and water are basically a non issue as soon as you find the one plant anyway, but the easy crafting thing seems a bit much. Eh whatever, play it however. On paper, crafting from your inventory and having to make the ingredients for a blueprint seem fine but there are a few issues that hinder this:
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Mar 31, 2020 08:10
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And don't forget that every single crafting has a little delay, so if you're crafting something that isn't just straight from raw materials, you get to watch that crafting animation over and over and over and over again. So no, that mod is ABSOLUTELY some wonderful QoL.
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Mar 31, 2020 11:11
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#3 - Time Capsule Slightly shorter update today, but the end point was so perfect that I had to end it there. EDIT: The first 7 videos were all recorded last April. And I have another 3 or 4 recorded past that that I have yet to edit. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Mar 31, 2020 |
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Mar 31, 2020 14:57
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I love this game but I never knew that you could get an eclipse. Also your missing silver was used to make the hi capacity O2 tank
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Mar 31, 2020 16:25
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I was so disappointed that the time capsule didn't even have an egg in it. I've found two time capsules in my playthrough. Mostly garbage but one had the Cyclops Shield Generator which made my life a million times easier. Also I love the Alterra AI. A mix of Glados and HR. PlasticAutomaton fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Mar 31, 2020 |
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Mar 31, 2020 17:12
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Da_Higg posted:I love this game but I never knew that you could get an eclipse.  That explains it!
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Mar 31, 2020 18:49
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I like to imagine we just popped a cold one (assuming there was something equivalent in the ration supply) and watched everything go boom. "Oh hey yeah radiation is a thing I probably shouldn't just be sitting here, huh?"
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Mar 31, 2020 18:59
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Something happened, just lettin' you know
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Mar 31, 2020 19:06
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Game's pretty fun, but also really tense because until fairly far into the game you can't really fight back against anything... and some things need a lot of fighting-back-against until they leave you alone.
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Mar 31, 2020 20:10
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Just bathin' in the warm radiation, giving your skin a healthy blue glow.
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Apr 1, 2020 01:10
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I found a few Time Capsules. One confused me because it was a Survival Knife and a late game suit written in the style of a crocodile dundee survivor dude. The other one had endgame stuff in it. Stalker Teeth can be a pain to get especially if you don't realize you need them until after you've cleaned up most of the metal scrap in the world. Them playing with metal scrap is the best way of getting those teeth, so it's worth it to leave a bunch of scrap around a pack of Stalkers and just let them have at it. They also absolutely will go after you even if you don't have anything in your hand. They're carnivorous predators after all. The shiny object just gets their attention from farther away. PurpleXVI posted:And don't forget that every single crafting has a little delay, so if you're crafting something that isn't just straight from raw materials, you get to watch that crafting animation over and over and over and over again. It is a good QoL mod regardless though. Chronische posted:Game's pretty fun, but also really tense because until fairly far into the game you can't really fight back against anything... and some things need a lot of fighting-back-against until they leave you alone.
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Apr 1, 2020 01:21
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